Associations between posttraumatic stress disorder and eating disorder symptoms among women veterans

Abstract

Recent research suggests high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and eating disorder (ED) comorbidity in women veterans. This study aims to expand the literature by examining associations between PTSD and ED diagnoses and symptoms in this population. We assessed probable PTSD diagnosis and symptom clusters (intrusion, avoidance, arousal and reactivity, and negative alterations in cognition and mood [NACM]), as well as probable Binge Eating Disorder (BED) diagnosis and ED subscales (dietary restraint, shape/weight overvaluation, and body dissatisfaction) in a sample of women veterans (N = 371). We investigated significance at the standard p < .05, and the Bonferroni-corrected p < .005 cut-off to adjust for experiment-wise error. Overall, we found that probable PTSD was associated with provisional BED (p < .001) using logistic regression at both cut-offs. Probable PTSD was associated with all ED subscales (all p's < 0.003) using linear regression models also at both cut-offs. Provisional BED was associated with NACM at p < .05 (p = .046), though it did not meet significance at our conservative cut-off. NACM was also associated with shape/weight overvaluation (p = .02) and a global ED score (p = .01) at p < .05, but not at our conservative cut-off; arousal was associated with shape/weight overvaluation (p = .04) and the global ED score (p = .02) at p < .05, but not at our conservative cut-off. Our findings may further guide how ED-related topics can be integrated in PTSD treatment for women veterans with comorbid PTSD and ED.